


Girl's Choice

by My_Furnace_Has_Wings



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Girl's choice for a school dance, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Furnace_Has_Wings/pseuds/My_Furnace_Has_Wings
Summary: A school dance is coming up. Piper is trying to switch clubs. She's just trying to make it through her classes without getting distracted by the captain of the boys volleyball team, Kuroo Tetsurou and find her place in school that makes her happy.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/OC, Kuroo Tetsurou/Piper
Kudos: 4





	Girl's Choice

Girl’s choice. There it was plain as day on the bulletin board. Brightly coloured paper with patterned ribbons around the outside. The rules for the upcoming end of year school dance. Held in the gym as it was the biggest room on campus.

“Hey, girl’s choice.” A boy hooted behind her. Obviously happy. Looking around at the horde of boys crowding the small area.

“Really? No way.”

“Let me see!”

“Wow!” Probably the tallest boy in school towered over the rest, easily seeing the information from the back of the group.

“Lev!” A voice called out and Piper knew it instantly. Turning her head, all the other boys crowding around glanced up at their tall comrade. “Practice started ten minutes ago.”

Despite his height, Lev cowered as he apologised and jogged to catch up to his captain. 

Piper felt her heart flutter as their eyes met. But he was just turning around. He didn’t actually see her. Her heart sinking into her stomach, she slipped to the side of the group. She sighed as she wandered to her own club. It wasn’t something she believed she was going to use later on, but she went to support her friends. They danced. Honestly, Piper wanted to take a look at some sports. She figured she could at least try and get fit. Maybe she might even enjoy it?

As luck would have it, Piper pushed the door open to the dance club, and the girls’ volleyball team stood. In all their glory of their proud uniform, bright red. Each one held a ball under one arm.

“Tryouts are this week and next week.” Piper recognized their captain immediately. She was big. Tall with thick muscle that flexed whenever she moved her arm holding the clipboard.

“And there’s also applications open for a manager.” The famous ace announced. Her joyous attitude spilling over the cowering group of petite dancers.

As they waved and turned, Piper felt as though a wall stood between her and the dancers. The group grinned down at her. Parting either side to let her through. 

Piper walked cautiously passed them all. Arriving with the dancers. Her friends skewed expressions watched the volleyball team leave. Piper watched on as her friends struck poses and frolicked about the room. Piper looked towards the door. Where the other club had left. She found herself looking back to the door constantly.

“Geez, Piper, if you need to pee, then just go. It’s not like you’re dancing or trying to learn the steps.” One of her friends mentioned. Piper was only vaguely aware of their voice. Nodding as she slowly slid off the desk.

As she wandered down the hall, Piper navigated her way outside to the gym. Looking inside she saw the captain of the girls’ volleyball team toss the ball up and for the ace to hit it. Perfectly scoring. Three verses three. 

“Are you going inside?” The voice startled Piper and she bounded away from the barred window. Looking over, she saw one of the members of the boys’ volleyball team. He wasn’t as tall as the others, his blonde hair certainly stood out along with his red uniform.

Piper waved her hand in front of her face as she tried to come up with an excuse. The blonde waited before deciding he wasn’t going to stick around. Pushing passed the net to walk inside the room. He held it open for her though. And Piper couldn’t leave him just holding, so she passed the net and was met with the gym. Big. Shoes squeaking on the polished floor. Balls hitting the ground. 

Piper looked around, seeing how big the place was. 

“Good luck.” The blonde wandered over to the other side of the gym where another court of players was. Piper squeaked when she spotted her crush. Shaking her head, she tried desperately to forget he was there.

“Hey!” A loud voice yelled out and Piper was suddenly glomped by one of the girls. Once release, Piper looked at all the girls looking at her. They were all grinning. Some wider than others but the brightness reached all their eyes. 

“Come to check out the place?” The setter walked forward. “You here for tryouts?” She held a ball between her palms.

“I-Uh, I was just… ah…” Piper looked at all the faces. They looked so happy. Was it always like this in the team? “Well, I’m not very sporty but I guess I don’t hate sports.”

“There’s always room for a manager. And if you managed our team, then you’d get to work with the boys’ team too.” One of the players spoke up. Not one Piper recognized. 

Piper panicked. “I want to play!” Her voice echoed in the gym. The group grinned more, some turning sly. 

“Alright.” The captain nodded. Handing her the ball. “Let’s start with the basics.”

And that was how Piper got to learning about volleyball. It wasn’t that bad. She had fun. Which was a surprise even to herself. Until she successfully yet accidentally saved a ball from hitting the court on her side as she had found libero was her best position and it fitted well with her height, or lack thereof. But everything was fine up until the point where Piper hit the ball to the other court and hit one of the boys. 

Both groups had laughed about it, and Piper couldn’t stop apologising. She’d hit Lev. The newcomer. The boy who’d been scolded for being ten minutes late for practice. 

“He’ll live.” One of the others mentioned as Lev waved off her apologises. 

“It’s fine. It didn’t have enough oomf in it to really do any kind of damage.” Lev laughed lightly. Smiling as always.

“That or your heads hard enough that you don’t feel the damage.” That voice. Piper panicked as she watched her crush walk up beside Lev, sweaty, breathing hard, the same lazy grin. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced?” He asked and Piper squeaked before her new captain swooped in to save her.

“This is Piper. She hasn’t officially joined yet, but we’re hoping to win her over.” The setter smiled as she moved forward and hooked an arm around Piper.

Piper had to laugh. The gesture seemed to be a common occurrence with the captain. Physically latching onto people. Her teammates were ones that hugged often. High-fived. Shouted. They were very extroverted. Piper found herself enjoying the change from the usual elegance of dancing.

“She was hanging out with those dancers, but she came to check this place out.” The ace chimed, her voice loud and clear. 

“What do you think?” One of the spikers came up close to her face. It was invading but Piper welcomed it. It was nice to spend time with people that didn’t care as much. And could be themselves around one another.

Piper smiled as she looked away. Her face already flushed. “Well they were a bit of a bore.” She admitted. Glancing around as if expecting them to hear her. None of the dancers were there.

“Well, I think that’s enough practice for today.” Both captains poke up, then looked at each other, then laughed.

Piper sighed. She was glad to be going home now. She was exhausted. She was so proud of herself for not getting as distracted as she thought she would with her crush there. But everything seemed to go well. Sure there a few times where she’d found herself glancing over, but the game really held her focus longer than she thought. And libero was fun. Spiking was fun to… when she didn’t get caught in the net. Kuroo had seen that too. 

Piper groaned as she remembered. The girls waved by and gently patted her back saying they hoped she came again tomorrow. Piper honestly, had made up her mind half an hour ago. She would come back. But how would she tell her friends? They expected her to stay in the dance club. They wanted her to be there so she could pretend to be helping them look for music and other resources if anyone came to check on them.

Piper was just going to have to come clean about it tomorrow.

***

Piper’s plan went out the window as she was dragged into the club room to get out of classes. She was missing chemistry for this. Not that it was her favourite class, but she was pretty good at it. Excusing herself from the group to use the bathroom, Piper found herself back in class. She never thought she’d ditch hanging with her old friends to spend time actually in class.

As she tapped her pen on her book, she waited for the bell to ring. And when it did?

Piper was out of there. Snatching her bag and shoving her books inside as she made her way to the gym. That’s how it was for a week as she skipped dance classes for volleyball practice.

This time though? She hoped she could surprise the girls. As she came in, she saw that she was early. The boys were already there, but the girls weren’t there yet.

Piper took this as her opportunity to go into the changing rooms and slip on a uniform. She liked the libero one and her team didn’t have someone for that position yet. Slipping the red and black uniform over herself, Piper exited the change rooms to see Kuroo. Pulling her short hair as close to her eyes as she could, Piper tried to walk past him.

“So, you’re sticking around?” He asked, coming to walk beside her.

Piper jumped and tried to sound convincing. “Oh! Kuroo! I didn’t see you there. My bad.”

Whether he believed it or not, Piper couldn’t say. But he laughed anyways.

“Yeah.” She mumbled. “I was hoping to surprise them.”

Kuroo looked her up and down. “Libero? Really?”

Piper looked herself up and down. “Well, yeah.” She looked up at him. Despite seeing him a lot over the past week, they hadn’t really talked. “I think the libero is the coolest.”

Kuroo nodded, hand under his chin as he closed his eyes in thought.

“The other positions are cool too!” Piper quickly tried to correct her previous statement.

“No, no. There’s no need to try and apologise. Libero is cool. I myself am-”

“Middle blocker.” They said together.

“No way.” A girl’s voice came from the entrance. “Pipes?”

Piper turned to see the group of girls standing there. 

“Mind if I be your libero?” She rubbed the back of her neck, grinning but she closed her eyes just in case.

She opened her eyes to see Kuroo take a large step back before the group of girls were all converging on her. Piper laughed as she went down to the ground with them. She could hear the deeper laugh of Kuroo above them.

“You really want to play for real?” The setter asked. Eyes bright.

Piper nodded. Together they helped one another up. “I had a heap of fun the other day. And it is way more fun than being in that other club. I don’t even do anything there.”

“Are you going to quiet the other club or stay in both?” The ace asked. Coming a little closer to her height.

Piper sighed. “I think I’m going to have to quit the other one. It’s just no fun.”

The other girls nodded. The captain picking up a ball and calling everyone into line. Forming pairs, they practiced tossing, falling safely, jumping, spiking. Everything. Piper was once again exhausted. 

“It’s going to take some time for your body to get used to the training.” The captain handed a bottle of water to their newest member.

Piper took it, downing as much as she could before releasing the bottle for air.

“Don’t push yourself too hard.” One of the spikers sat down and stretched her legs.

“I won’t.” Piper breathed.

“You’re a great libero though.” Another spiker wandered over with their own water bottle. 

After Piper slipped out of her uniform again and packed her bag up, she spotted Lev by himself. She took her chance and stopped in front of him. “Hey Lev?”

Upon hearing his name called, Lev looked up. He continued to pack his things away as he looked at Piper.

“Would you think I should have some of the girls with me when I tell the dancers I’m leaving their club?”

Lev stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Well, that depends whether you think those dancers are dangerous.” He hummed in thought for a moment. “If you don’t feel safe then I would say yes. But if you think you can handle it, then I would say no?” He shrugged.

Piper sighed. That… was not helpful.

“Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his head as he laughed a little.

“No, I need to do this. I need to man up and tell them.” Piper nodded, more to herself than to Lev.

Lev watched her leave before following her out, walking his own way home.

***

Piper sat in the dance room, waiting for the girls to come. They were running late today. Piper had made sure to fill out the application to join the volleyball club and made sure she was removed from the dance club. Maybe that’s why they were late. Had they already found out?

The door to the room opened and Piper hopped off the desk. Ready to feel their wrath. But they were too busy talking among themselves. Piper watched them plug their phone into a small, portable speaker and press play. Piper frowned. Pressed pause and waited for the girls to look at her. But once all their eyes were on her, all that confidence seemed to disappear. 

“What gives?” One of the girls asked.

Piper sigh. “I’m leaving this club to join the girls’ volleyball.”

There was a moment of silence before the girls were giggling among themselves. “Yeah right.”

Piper pressed play on their device, the last thing she would do for them or their club. She honestly couldn’t care less if their club got shut down. She made her way to the gym. Feeling freer with each step.

The girls were waiting in the gym. Piper apologised for being late. The girls understood that she needed to tell the other club that she was leaving. 

“So, how’d it go?” The ace asked after spiking another ball.

“They laughed.” Piper huffed as she managed to land her own spike. Just.

“Laughed?” One of the winged spikers repeated the word.

“Yeah.” Piper caught her breath before announcing she was ready for another one.

“Well that seems a little rude don’t you think?” The ace asked.

“Yeah.” Numerous agreements sounded around them room. Minus the boys who had not arrived today.

As Piper spiked another and got it over the net, she sighed. “I feel better for telling them though.”

“It doesn’t sound like they believed you though.” The captain prepared another toss. “Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Well, they don’t really get a choice!” Piper spike another ball, but she missed. Landing on her feet. The ball bounced away. “I left and I’m not going back.”

“You made sure to sign the papers, right?” One of them stand to paused in her practice. 

“Yeah.” Piper nodded towards them. “The ones to join you guys and the ones to leave them.” She cocked her head to the side as she considered the sheets. Yes, she filled them out and handed them in.

***

A week. One whole week. That’s how long it took for Piper to adjust to seeing her new friends and teammates in her classes. It was a wonder she hadn’t noticed some of them before. And, subsequently, that’s exactly how long it took for her old friends to notice her absence. The time it happened could not have been worse. But looking back, Piper was glad it went down the way it did.

“Chance ball!” Piper called as she bounced the incoming ball off her forearms. The ball shot up but higher than she’d intended. “Ah, sorry!” She prepared for another attack as the ball went back over to the serving side of the net after her receive.

“Don’t worry about it!” The ace called. Focus already on the other teams’ setter.

The ball was tossed by the captain on the other side of the net. 

“Watch your corners.” A voice called from the stands. And Piper glanced back in time to see the ball being aimed at their back corner. It was going to be in. She ran. Her heart racing as time seemed to slow down. She dove for the ball. Hand forming a fist as she connected it with the underside of the ball. Her body siding against the smooth floor as she hit the ball back up, but it was off as her eyes landed on the open doors of the gym. One of her friends stood in the entry way. 

“Hurry, hurry!” One of the girls yelled. 

“To me!” One of the winged spikers called. Smacking the ball down only for it to be intercepted.

But it landed flat as Piper continued to stare at the girl in the entry way. She stood. Straightening out her uniform. 

The girl didn’t say anything as she looked around. Albeit in disgusted. She huffed, a hand on her hip. “When you’re done playing, we need you to tell the club. Organising. You know that person who manages all the clubs on campus?” She looked at her nails for a moment. “Because we need another member and the lady is saying you quit. And if you don’t tell her you are part of our club, then our dance club will likely be closed down.”

Piper froze. Closed? All because she left? But she said: ‘Our club’. Since when had it ever been theirs? Piper was never accepted as an official member by the club because she didn’t involve herself.

Piper could feel the other girls behind and beside her. She felt like a character from a movie. Piper took a deep breath before allowing herself to gaze at the other girl without fear of being judged. “I’m sorry that your club will be closing but I don’t want to join again. I already told you I was leaving. I hinted throughout a week that you should find more members because I was leaving.” She didn’t stop there. She didn’t give the other girl a chance to get a word in. “I was never a part of that club. You wanted me there so you could goof off and mess about on your phones. You never put any real work into those dance practices. I bet you couldn’t even perform one now. Because you haven’t been practicing. You haven’t been keeping up. And you fell behind and it’s your fault your club is boring and closing.”

Maybe she was being a bit harsh. But god how she wanted to say so much more. She didn’t though as she saw the girl’s eyes tear up. She remained standing in the doorway. Shoulders shaking.

“I thought we were friends?” She shouted. Tears leaking down her face. 

Piper walked forward and offered the girl a hug. “So did I.” She didn’t mean for everyone to hear it, but the gym had gone quiet and the only other sound was Piper’s former friend’s crying. Piper backed away. A hand on the other girl’s shoulder. Piper didn’t know what she was feeling. She was happy for leaving the group, but she was sad that she’d hurt someone. But she also felt like she was just being used, in a sense, in that dance club. 

The other girl threw Piper’s hand off her shoulder. Turning around crying, fleeing the building.

***

Piper knew she’d hurt those girls. She knew they blamed her. She expected them to resent her. To hate her. But what she didn’t expect was for some of them to attempt to throw water over her head. To pull horrible pranks. To hide her things. To squeeze paint through her books so she couldn’t read her notes.

As Piper walked back to the hallways one afternoon, she found her bag missing from its locker. Kuroo had approached her with his bag and hers. One slung over either shoulder. He offered to walk her home, after all, he didn’t want anything to happen to her on the way home if people were doing these things to her. The least he could do is walk her home and offer to carry her heavy bag. It wasn’t that heavy, but he proved chivalry wasn’t dead.

Piper sighed in defeat as she was once again face to face with two of the girls. Two she hadn’t seen since she last said goodbye to the group a month ago. She shrugged her bag further up on her shoulder.

They didn’t speak right away. Glancing to the side. Then they blurted out apologises. Admitting they reported the other girls to the school. Piper nodded and asked if they were doing okay without the dance group. They smiled and announced their interest in art. Joining the rather large art and drama club. The two combined due to interlinked courses and resources. They promised to be there to cheer on the volleyball teams whenever there was a match.

Piper was glad she still had some of her old friends. 

Piper had gotten more chances to talk to Kuroo lately too. He was there to save her from being dunked by a bucket of water. He caught her before she fell down a ramp. He was actually a huge nerd. The more time they spent together, the more Piper felt comfortable around him. The more she could speak openly. Their conversations branched to a wide range of topics from volleyball, to chemistry, to space, to art, to college. 

As she passed the two girls beside her, Piper spotted the boys’ volleyball captain staring at the bulletin board. Frowning at it as he held his chin in his hand. Piper approached him, noticing her former friends further down the hall. 

“Hey.” She called to Kuroo. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” She peered at the board. A few new flyers were stuck to it.

“This.” He pointed to the rules of the end of year social dance.

Piper recalled the information. Girl’s choice.

Kuroo sighed heavily beside her, his finger slipping off the page. 

“Would you like to go?” Piper asked, refusing to look at him.

“Hm?” A quick hum and he was leaning down and around her.

“To the dance?” Piper tried to elaborate, still not meeting his gaze. Instead fixing hers on the flyer.  
“Are you asking?”

Piper risked a glanced at him and could see the shit eating grin plastered on his face. She turned to face him, fully serious. “I am.”

Kuroo’s grin grew wider. Holding his hand out for Piper to take. “Then I accept. My knight in shining armour.”

Piper felt her face flush as he leant back down to kiss her cheek.

“But you have to do one thing for me if I go as your date.” He purred in her ear.

Piper squeaked and deflated as if all her confidence had physically escaped her body.

Kuroo laughed. “Let’s make this official.” His easy-going smile back. “Be my girlfriend.”

Piper swore she died and was reborn then and there. The two grinned at each other and the few team members from either volleyball team hollered at them.


End file.
